Buttons and input

You know how on ATM machines the hardware buttons along the side of the screen have different functions depending on what screen you're on. The "function" of the button is displayed on the screen next to the button and can change from screen to screen.

I was thinking of using 4 hardware buttons (preferably small metal capacitive buttons) along the bottom edge of my screen. Are there any Car PC apps that allow for such screen-dependant functionality?

ie: I'm in my media player - the typical "back, forward, vol up, vol down" buttons on the screen are replaced with "Back, Forward, Vol +, Vol -" markings on the screen above the applicable hardware button. Touching one of the buttons would perform the indicated function.

On another screen such as navigation, the buttons could be mapped to different functions, such as "Destination, Menu, Zoom in, Zoom out".. etc...

Sounds like something that one of those fancy Logitech keyboards with assignable macro keys can do. When you switch applications, the same keys perform different tasks. Maybe you might be able to get hold of a second-hand gaming mouse by Logitech or Razor or something and use it as a controller, connect the buttons to it and use the profiler to assign keystrokes or commands for the various applications you are using? The profiling software will detect when you have switched applications and will reassign the commands for you.

Good idea, but I don't want different commands in different applications, I want different commands in the same application, but based on displayed page. (ie, one set of functions for the media player in RR, another set of functions for when iG is running, another set of functions for the RR home screen, etc...)

Isn't RR just a front end? If you profile for the applications that are running underneath it, eg Winamp if your using that for the media player and iGuidance then I imagine it would still work, but I could not be sure if the profiler would work considering the applications are technically running at the same time, unless it is clever enough to detect which app is selected at the time.